Jack Ruby

1920's - He quit school after sixth grade and lived a life on the streets during adolescence. He was known for his explosive temper and willingness to fight.

1930's - he lived in California but soon moved back to Chicago. He tried short-lived careers as a salesman, union organizer, and boxer.

1943-46 - US Air Force

1947 - Ruby moved to Dallas to help his sister manage a nightclub she owned. He served as manager and unofficial bouncer of the club and soon became acquainted with members of the Dallas police force. He later moved to the Carousel Club and, anxious to be accepted, befriended many police officers by giving them free drinks and hospitality. The police regarded Ruby as a harmless figure who enjoyed the aura of law enforcement. Those in the criminal world considered Ruby an informer, who told the police everything he knew about criminal activity.

1963 - On November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas. Ruby was distraught at the news of the assassination and headed for the Dallas police headquarters. A well-known face at the police station, he was allowed into headquarters on November 23. On Sunday, November 24, Oswald was scheduled to be transferred to the county jail around 10:00 a.m., but a series of events delayed his move until 11:00 a.m. Ruby, who had parked his car one block away from the police station around that time, walked down the rampway to the basement garage of the police station. The guard at the basement entrance had momentarily left his post to stop traffic so that the police convoy with Oswald could leave the building. Ruby walked into the garage, which was filled with police officers, reporters, and camera crews. As Oswald appeared, flanked by police detectives, Ruby approached him with a .38-caliber gun and fatally shot him. Ruby was immediately arrested.

1964 - The case against Ruby was substantial. After the shooting, Ruby had given statements to the police, one of which suggested premeditation. Medical authorities did not support Jack's attorney, Melvin M. Belli's medical diagnosis of Ruby. On March 16, 1964, a jury convicted Ruby of premeditated murder, and he was sentenced to death.

1966 - Ruby's conviction was reversed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October, but he died in prison of a blood clot, complicated by cancer, on January 3, 1967.

-Many people were unpersuaded by the Warren Report's conclusion that Oswald acted alone. Since 1964 numerous books and theories have asserted that the Kennedy assassination was the result of a conspiracy. One theory proposed that organized crime had killed Kennedy and that Ruby had underworld connections.

1979 - a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives reexamined the evidence from 1963 and concluded that there had probably been two gunmen and that a conspiracy was likely. This committee noted that in the weeks preceding the Kennedy assassination, Ruby had made several phone calls to persons associated with organized crime. Other commentators have discounted the phone calls, as they were made before Kennedy's trip to Dallas and the route his motorcade would take were announced.

1993 - feature film Ruby speculated on Ruby's more complex motivations. Ruby was played by Danny Aiello. Among the impulses explored by the film that might have propelled Ruby into shooting Oswald were Ruby's reputation among family and friends as an assiduous, the influence of his long-time organized crime and Dallas police connections and emotionally volatile publicity-seeker.